Prevalence of depression and associated factors among elderly Sudanese: a household survey in Khartoum State

We assessed depression among 300 elderly Sudanese (age 60+ years). We conducted a cross- sectional household survey in 3 localities in Khartoum State. A 2-stage stratified sampling was carried out to select the localities and then the areas using simple random sampling; then systematic random sampling was used to select households. The prevalence of depression was 47.5%. Depression was significantly associated with age (P = 0.002), level of education (P = 0.015), occupation (P 0.001), the problems of everyday living (P = 0.026), and social problems (P 0.001). After controlling for confounders using multiple logistic regression, we found that depression was 4 times greater among the elderly retired compared to the elderly working, 3 times greater among the elderly with social problems and those who were suffering from urine incontinence and 2 times greater among the elderly with living problems.